Book Review: Idea-Links: The New Creativity by Jim Link

Idea-Links: The New Creativity by Jim Link is a very interesting book that will expand your mind and teach you how to be more creative. Now everyone may think that creativity is not something that can be learned but the author shows you (through many examples) that using his methods, you can learn to be a more creative person. Right in the first few pages Jim Link begins his book with a narration about an engineer who keeps abreast of the latest ideas, gadgets, and technology by filing them away for future reference. He continues the book with many more examples of famous and creative people and tells how they achieved their creativity. Link goes into explanations of their actions and how they related certain events to problem solving and inventing. In his book, Link refers to these relationships as “Links.”

Idea-Links is filled with narratives in almost every chapter, narratives that grab and hold the reader’s attention, i.e., “Curiosity-Getting Your ‘Why’ Back,” and “Finding Idea-Links for Important Subject Areas.”

Part Two begins with the “Creative Reframing.” In “Discipline 2,” Link reminds the reader that we are all curious about something and that we have links embedded in our minds that are related to that curiosity. He gives examples of questions that will tease the brain. With the use of charts and diagrams, the author lays out his plan for linking everything the brain has stored with a problem-solving solution.

Jim Link has written a very informative and exciting book that ignites the brain to allow the creative juices to flow. He has shown the reader that there are many different ways that a person can become creative by referring to what is stored in the back of their mind–such thought-provoking processes that force one to be creative when the author’s methods are used.

Idea-Links: The New Creativityby Jim Link is a well-researched, creatively written and professionally published book that would appeal to a great many people from all walks of life. From carpenters to chiropractors, bartenders to brain surgeons, all will benefit from reading this 264-page mind expanding text. I enjoyed reading it and gave it a solid “B” on my scale.